The Sun. — London, England, 1818-01-29 00:00:00

greatest alarm from the apprehension of plots end c msniracies. Afterwards, when the whole court tA was thrown into consternation by rite Popish plots vt".lftlier true or fake, he did not at present pretend to determine —no idea was started of repealing the H abeas Corpus Act. 'Nei- the+. the Rye-house plot, nor any other plot, had been thought sufficient, eveu in those convulsed times, to warrant the Legislature in depriving the subject of personal liberty, Returning to the Act of last Session, he most again assert, that no ground for it had been laid at the time it was, passed, and nothing hid since occurred to stew that there was any thing in the state of the coun try which called for it. ‘Vbere was any disturbs. arce or - conspiracy to be found that could justify such a measure It was not to be found in any or the leg-al proceedings which had taken place in this metiopolis, or even at Derby. Did it appear in any of the proceedings which had taken. place in Scotland A dreadful oath, an oath which was not fit to be publicly stated, it was said, had been taken in that country. • Ministers,lt was as serted, had tlie rullest evidence of a most exten sive-conspiracy, but which evidence they did not choose to disclose.. Well, t heir Law Officers pro ceeded to try these conspirators and oath-takers in Scotland. At first, their indietMent was wrong ; a new indictment was preferred ; but after all they tailed in proving that any illegal oath had been taken. None of these proceedings afforded any appearance of a necessity for the aneasore which Ministers bad recommended and which Parlia ment had been induced to adopt. But the Noble Lad (Liverpool) had declared that he was ready •to prove, not Only that the measure was justified by the state of the country at the time, but that it had been productive of the greatest advantages. That the country was in better circumstances now than last year be was happy to believe;. but what ever improvement had takto place certainly Was not owing to the suspension of the Habeas Cor pus Act. Were the truth of this assertion of Mi nisters to be admitted by their Lordships, there would be no longer any security for personal liberty. On any ftrure occasion, when desirous of obtaining an undue increase of power, if they could persuade Parliament to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act on ex parte evidence, they would have nothing more to do, supposing the state of the country to have, from other causes, improv ed, than to come forward next year and say, you see what advantages have beets derived from fol lowing our recommendatirm. 'On the contrary, it it should happen to be followed by discontent and distress, Ministers would thereby acquire an argument for prolonging their undue authority.— They would say, you see now the measure we called for was necessary, and that'the suspension of the law must be .continued. Nothing, how-. even , could excuse such a measure, but an evi dent proof of its necessity, founded on a full and impartial investigation. Last Session their Lordships had heard mock of blasphemous pro ductions, but. had these productionk been put down by t he suspensiou of the Habeas Corpus Act It was not said they were now in circulation.— Was it the threefold prosectoinO which Minis ters had tried against them, which had produced this effect -? This was certain—that with respect t these publications, things remained in the same state as last -year ; and if they were no longer a subject of complaint, it could not he owing to any of the measures of the Noble Lord. With regard to that prosecution, it was not his wish to sayanoch, lest any thing which might fall front him on that subject should , be taken as a 'vindication - of the species of publication against which the pro secotion was instituted. So far from wishing to 'vindicate that sort of writing, lie rather thought it. ()ugh!, in point of good taste as well as of decency, to he discouraged. At the same time he could not help saying, that these prosecutions bore such marks of hypocrisy as he had never before wit nessed. W a s there any man in the country so weak as to believe, that the writer of the paro dies agaittst which Ministers had manifested so notch indignation, would have been questioned had he ridiculed persons in opposition to.the Go- al:fment ? His friends had ()ten been made the subject of such satire, and yet, on th ise occasions, the Government never thought religion so en dangered by such publications as to render it tie re !he Attoniey-General to proseentetheni. Ile r•-collected a parody published by those eon uret ed with the Noble Lord's Administration, against persons in opposition, of which the words of oar Saviour himself were the subject. Now, wishing to speak with all respect of the Liturgy of the Cloy ch of &gland, he should only say, that he thought it most extraordinary that prosecu tions sheold he instituted for parodies on it, while parodies on the words of the Scriptures themselves were allotved to pass unnoticed He recollected a parody, which had been published in all - the Mi. 'listens, Newspapers of the time, against the late Mr. Paul. It was of the most disgusting nature, and yet no notice had been taken of it.—When it was so evident to all the world, that the prosecu tions brought against Mr. Hone bad been institut ed for political reasons only, it was impossible for the country not to despise the hypocritical pre tences under which they were brought forward. - This was an unavoidable consequence which Mi nisters must endure; for, in order that motives should he respected, it was necessary that they should he truly respectable. It dick :tot become any Adinitlistration to inflict severe punishments on (me set of men who might he hostile to them, for the same kind of acts which they viewed with indulgence when commi.ted by others in their fa voer. He should say nothing more on this sub ject but to express his bore that their Lordships would agree to the inquiry he had suggested. If a Commilee should be instituted, it must not be formed as that•of last year had been. The in spiry, to give satisfaction, must be minute and complete. If a Committee should be agreed to, jr ought to be an open one, to which all their Lordships would have access ; and then he might hope that no evidence would be permitted to be gqrbled or withheld, as, he was 'assured, could be proved to have been done by 'Ministers with re spert to the Committee of last year. Infot mat on had been received by Ministers which would have tended to counteract tine impression of other evi - dense befors the CoMmittee, but which had never come to their hands. This was a subject which called for a strict investigation. Lord Stpstotrrn . did not expect that the Noble Lord would have thought it proper, on the pre sent occasion, to address to their Lordships servations of the patine of those they' had just heard, though he was aware that the circumstance of such a Bill being on the table , l eft.the Noble Lord at perfect. liberty to adopt the course he had taken. The Noble Lord had stated, - that .there was no necessity for the Act of last Session. Or this assertion, he should only say, that the report made by the Committee appointed by their Lord ships, and on the authority of which the Act was passed, afforded its complete refutation. The Noble Lord has also asserted, that the evidence produced by 'i\linisters was garbled, and that in formation which ought to have been communicated to the Comthittee was withheld. He well knew that the Noble Liird was incapable of statin. , any thing which he did not - in his conscience b elieve to be true, but he could assure their Lordships that every kind of information which could with propriety be laid before the Committee had been produced to them, and that nothing had been withheld which was necessary to enable them to arrive at a fair and proper. conclusion on the qe s ;stion submitted- to their consideration. The Noble Lord also denies that the Act of last Session. has beep of any advantage to the country. In the Prince Regent's Speech, it was true, only the other causes which had contributed to the return ing prosperity of the country were mentioned, hot it did not follow that great benefit had not been derived from the Suspension of the Habeas . Corpus Act. There never was a greater contrast exhibited bythe country than that which the com parison of its present state With that of last year affordrd ; and h e wo u ld now maintain, and if the occasion should arrive would prove, that the act of last Session had mainly contributed to this re sult. The effects it had had in many parts of the country did not rest on assertion; they were al ready proved. The Magistrates and persons best informed.rn the county of Leicester stated, on their own knowledge - , that the passing of the suspen sion act had produced tranquillity in manufactur ing districts where the greatest alarm for the peace of the country had previously existed, In another place, where there had been a more formidable manifestation of treason, the good effects of the measure had been still more apparent—he meant that insurrection in consequence of which a Lill of indictment bad been found against the offenders who were tried at Derby. On that occasion, ten of the persons accused fled ; four were sentenced to suffer death ; and in all, 31 confessed themselves guilty of Treason, some of whom were transported, and the remainder pardoned. These men, besides making a confession of their guilt, gave certain information, that an insurrection of a much more formidable nature than that in which they bad been engaged was in contemplation, and would infallibly have taken place had not the Habeas Corpus Act been suspended. It was that measure alone which bad deterred them. Thus it was proved by incontrovertible evidence, that the mea sure for which the Noble Lord contended there was no necessity, had preserved the peace and tranquillity of the country. Much stress had been laid on the destitute condition and humble circumstances of those who bad last year - disturbed the public peace : it was true that their means were very inadequate to the objects they had in view ; but even had they never expected fully to effect their` purposes, was there no me dium between the holding of their seditious meet lugs, and a state of things in which the Throne itself was exposed. to tumultuous attacks ? The truth, however, was, that many of the movers in those lamentable disturWices were far from be ing men of mean or contemptible talents ; and they possessed powers of writing and expression by which they exercised a very considerable de gree of influence over the lower classes. It was entirely attributable to the withdrawing the in fluence of these men by the operation of the Sus pension Act, that no convulsions bad since taken place in that part of , the Kingdom to which he had alluded, and which had before been disturbed by the events that led to the Trials at Derby. The Noble Lord had adverted to the Trial of Mr. Hone, and it was necessary that he (Lord S41111°110) should make some reply to what h , d fallen from him. He hail, indeed, little ex pected that any complaints would be made in that House on the subject of this • pro,ecution. Great complaints had been made both iu 'Parliainent ann out Of it, that Ministers had.delayed to prosecute a number *of offence; of this description ; they were loudly called on to do so, and they yielded at length to the call, not from hypocritical motives, not from a pretended regard to t eligion, but be cause they saw in the progress of diSaffection that the same means were pursued to alienate the of-.. fections of the people from their Government,.l as had been resorted to with such - fatal success in a neighbouring country—he meant a continued attempt to sap the religion and morals of the com munity,. and to render contemptible, in the eyes of the people, every thing that was sacred and established. He - was willing to admit that Go- . vcrnment never showed its wisdom More than when it knew what offences to overlook, as well as what to prosecute ; but he thought the prose cution in question peculiarly called for by the cir cumstances of the times, and the insidious attempts • of the disaffected. As to the panegyric that the Noble Lord had passed on the privilege of Eng lishmen to be called to trial, and publicly charged with the offences of which they were suspected, his Majesty's Ministers htul shown their respect (or these glorious and exalted rights in the proceed ings of that day. The act then under their con sideration did not expire until the Ist of March, and there was record on the Journals of the House, that an Act of that description had ever been repealed, or not suffered to run out to its utmost limit. But his Majesty's Ministers ad mitted that nothing could justify the continuance of such an Act but the necessity which originated it, and when that necessity ceased it was due to the Legislature and to the people of this coun try to repeal it forthwith. But in recommend ing this repeal, it was not that his Majesty's Mi nisters considered there was an assence of all dis position to disturb the public peace : that was tar from being the case ; there was a sufficient number of daring and , unprincipled individu a ls, both in and out of the metropolis, who were ready to seize every opportunity of exciting and coati nning disaffection and tumult. But the mere existence of bad men ready to excite and promote confusion was not of itself a sufficient reason for suspending one of the great bulwarks of our Con •stitution, unless those_ men had also the power of carrying their designs into execution : that they possessed that power last year was admitted by the vote of their Lordships, and the bill they had , passed ; but the means of evil iii the hands of these men were 3o abated, that the means of re ducing them ought also to be left to the power of the law and the magistracy of the country. He should now detain their Lordships no longer.— The Prince Regent would lay papers before their Lordships touching the internal stale of the country. Those papers would be laid on the table, and it would he for their Lordsllips to decide how they should be disposed of. Many opportunities would arise, in the course of the Session, of dis cussing the measures lately resorted to by the G.,- vernment, and on the propriety of those measures he was ready to state his unshaken conviction ; but with respect to the manner in which they had been carried into execution it did riot become him to speak, because the responsibility incurred by that execution fell almost exclusively on himself. lie could safely. say that be had endeavoured to discharge a most painful and difficult duty tempe rately and firmly ; that he had always weighed well whatever came before him, and had tried to act up to the necessity of the case, and not to go beyond it. The bill was then read a second and third time, ordered to be engrossed, and sent to the Com mons'.—Adiourned. [For the Proceedings in the House of commons, see the Fourth Page.] THRA rnicAL REGISTER. , " Performed Last Night. THEATRE RoYA f., DRURY-LANE.—Lillipnt. After Which (Ist time), The Turret Clock. To which was added, Harlequin's Vision. TH EAT ItE Rota t, Coy ENT-GA RDENI:She Stoops to Conquer : Young Marlow, Mr. C. tiemble ; Miss flardcastle, Miss Brunton. After which, Harlequin Qullirer. MAILS. ARRIVED-1 Dublin, 2 Waterford. Due--2 Guernsey and Jersey, 2 Holland, 6 Gottenburgb, i Malta, 1 France, Hamburgh. PRICE ,01 THIS PAY AT T STOCKS ELvE Bank Stock. * 9B 3 per Cent. Red Sohn 3 per Cent. Co"- • 794114 qBir pel . 4 per Centg. • • 98 10 5 per Cent. N. Ann.lo4i 104 Bank Long Ann.........20ii 1ndia.5t0ck.........2391 2401 India 80ne15....1 Ofis. 107 s. pr. Excb. Bills ISs 275. pr_ Cons. fur Account, 79i Mill HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TOMORROW. Morning, 25 minutes after 7. 1 Evening, 50 minutes after 7. THE SUN. 110,6E51 QVIS DICERE FALSUM AVIDk:AT ? LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 1818. New York Papers to the 28th of - December arrived this morning. They repeat the statement of Mr. Bacon, the British Minister, having entered a Protest against their Government taking possession of the Floridas. The Republican Chronicle of the 26th of December says, " we can assert with con fidence that the British 'Minister entered his Pro test against the occupation of Amelia Island first ; but that our Government intend to protest in form against the seizure of the lonian Isles by the British, on the ground that it lays the Commerce of the Adriatic at their mercy, and was, more over, done without the consent previously ob tained either of the rest of the world or the Turkish Government." (Front the New York Commercial Advertiser of Dec. 26.) Fri - m . lmm Correipondept.l ' Office of The ReAcetor, Milledgevilk, Dee. 12. LATE AN!) IMPORTANT NEWS. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM AN OFFICER AT FORT HAWKINS, DATED DEC. 10. " The firing which was supposed to be an at tack upon Colonel ARBUCKLE'S camp, was a can nonading from Fort Scott, in return to some firitig which the. Indians made upon, the boats which were building, in the river. Nothing material resulted. The account Which I gaveyou relative to the , foraging party being cut off is probably .in correct, ss has not been confirmed. " I expect you have had an Express from Gen. GAINES, the contents of which have 'transpired here ; that is, that General GAINBS ascertained that Major Musustrauaa was ascending Apalacha, and dispatched two boats to his assistance, and to collect provisions. One ,boat, commanded by Lieut. SCOTT, with 50 men, was attacked 12 miles below Fort Scott, and the whole massacred except six, who saved themselves by swimming, four of wham were wounded. From the other boat, and another which had been up the River, nothing had been beard. An express from Gen. JACKSON to Gen. GAINES had been received, that stated that be bad taken the route by Fort Gaines, but was unable to proceed. He penetrated within 10 miles of the Fort, when he observed fresh Indians (Stngars), and a few miles further he came to where two white men had been killed, one of whom was Mr. JOHN CHAMBERS, of Fort Gaines. " It is supposed they were killed on Monday last, within a few miles where they had encamped the night before.—Provisions are plenty, and transportation less difficult than was expected."' It is uncertain when we shall march ; poloPs two or three days." ARMY AND FORTIFICATIONS. The "following Message was received from t ile President of the United States, delivered by I ‘'' J. J. Motswog, his Secretary : " To the House of Representatives of the United States. " In compliance with a Resolution of the Ho use of Representatives of the United Statts of the 1 11 h of this month, requesting to be informed of di e present strength of the Army of the United State' s ' its distribution among the several mill: ary P° stl which it is designed to protect, and its comPe . tency to preserve and defend the f o rtificatio us amongst which it is distributed, and to aid in Oa' structing such military works, if any, as it may b e deemed proper to act for the more effectual securitf of the United States, and of the Territories thereof; I now transmit a Renort from the S e.. cretary of War, which contains the informatiell desired. " JAMES MUNROE." (From the New York Commercial Advertiser of Dec. R7') PHILADELPHIA, DEC. 2G.—The Earl of 5 .61 ' .. KIRK arrived in this city on Wednesday last, 811 4 this morning proceeds to New York. The Paris Papers of Monday last, wilich We re due this morning, hare not come to hand. It has been usual, as our Readers must ge ne ' rally know, in former times, whenever it has beta deemed necessary to suspend THE HABEAS Cott' PUS ACT, to let the Suspension Act e xpire ill due course, but as the tranquil state of the Cott" try, the improved habits of the lower orders, and the revival of trade, manufactures., &•. &c. h 3cB removed all danger of pubic commotion, ex' cept what may be found in the daily incitemen t ' of the factious Journals, Ministers, we. find' will not wait for the slow progress of time, b ut, with all' the dispatch which Parliamentat.y, f r nig will admit, have resolved to take away every cal° of discontent, which, however, has only existe 4 among weak and factious men, by at once a nnul' ling the Act in question, and restoring the C 0 1" stitution and the Laws to their free and full oP e " ration. If there were any candour in anpositioa within doors, as well as witlmut, they wou ld give credit to Ministers on this occasion, bu t they still obstinately persevere in pretenili4 that there was no cause for the Suspension, though the commotiOns in several parts of th ° kingdom were pregnant with danger, which soLlt only averted by the wisdom and timely vigour the Government. THE BREWERS, we find, have come forwar4 with an advertisement, in which they signify that they are ready to meet a Legislative inquiry We trust that such an inquiry *ill be speethlt made, and an effectual check be put to thei r monopoly and arbitrary power of levying contri• butions on the Public. That the Meeting, hel d on Monday last for this purpose, should be re' garde(' with an evil eye by The Morning Chronicles would be wonderful, if, with all its pretende d public spirit, it did hot betray the cloven- fool, by accusing the Ministerial Writers. of h a ving' made the " most irritating statements" on the subject, though, in fact, the complaint has been general against the BREWERS, and their arbitrary proceedings. No—for the honour of the English Press be it observed, that The Morning Chronicle is the only Paper which has attempted to raise a censure on what it stiles " a cry against a whole body of Tradesmen," and which, after declaring that it " knows nothing of the case," it yet lot the rashness and folly to stigmatize as " un just, and, when countenanced by Magistrates, oh' viously dangerous." HOW long has The Chro nicle been thus solicitous for the purity and 110'" nour of Magistrates ? But the truth happens to be quite the contrary. The grievance has been too much countenanced by Magistrates, not the general " cry " against it. All the otherpublie Journals h a ve sympathized with the Lahoolin;; Poor, on a subject which so nearly affects them, and have exclaimed against the late arbitrary in crease in the Price of Porter. But that this, like every thing else, should, by The Chronicle, be tortured into a question of Party, is as impolitic as absurd, and, indeed, insult ing to common sense. If ever there was a question aloof from Party, that interested the greater MISS of the People, this is that ques lion. Perhaps- The Chronicle means to identify the interests of the BREWERS with the Orro slTlOi►2, and those of the PUBLIC with the MINISTRY. The Ministerial Journals, as those which differ from The Morning Chronicle are stiled, are accused of having inflamed the p u blic mind by the exposure which they lave made of the exorbitant impositions of the Brewers, and of the corruptness of the Licensing System, which favour their avarice. We may ngain ask, how long has The Morning Chronicle dreaded the